(TibetanReview.net, Mar13, 2015) – Residents of a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery under severe security clampdown in Karze (Chinese: Ganzi) Prefecture of Sichuan Province had on Mar 9 angrily rejected Chinese offers of gift and help in exchange for expressing gratitude and undertaking not to take part in protest activities, reported voatibetanenglish.com Mar 12.

The report said Chinese officials visited the Ganden Choeling Nunnery in Dagkar Township of Tawu (Chinese: Daofu) County and offered its nuns gifts of shoes while then advising them to express appreciation and affection for China. The nuns were also warned that any of them getting involved in protests will face severe consequences.

Incensed by the conditionality, the nuns threw the shoes outside the nunnery. And they told the officials that their problem was not the lack of shoes to wear but the absence of freedom.

Ganden Choeling has been under severe security clampdown since Nov 3, 2011 when Ani Palden Choetso, 35, who belonged to it, carried out a self-immolation protest against Chinese rule. A lockdown was imposed on the nunnery and its resident nuns subjected to periodic re-education sessions, during which they were forced to renounce the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

News of Palden Choetso’s death had drawn thousands of Tibetans onto the streets to protest against Beijing’s policies and rule in Tibetan areas, noted Radio Free Asia (Washington) Mar 11.